


Family Tree

by HanaHimus



Category: Persona | Revelations Persona
Genre: Family, Family Bonding, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Mentions of other characters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-18 01:09:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16107623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HanaHimus/pseuds/HanaHimus
Summary: Reiji helps Takashi with a school project and ends up deciding to share more about himself with his son.





	Family Tree

**Author's Note:**

> This was... hard to write. The last bit especially. I've always wanted to explore Reiji and his shit father and Reiji forgiving Kandori and ig... this is a start towards that. 
> 
> I'm worried I didn't get all the ideas across (Reiji doesn't consider the Kandoris family, but put them on the tree for Takashi, Takashi starting to mull through the idea of a dead man who biologically is his uncle, Reiji trying to impart life lessons on Takashi but wanting him to grow and make some choices himself, Reiji’s trauma, etc...). But... I decided to post it, because can't get better without feedback. 
> 
> Anyway, enough rambling. PLEASE NOTE THE TAGS before reading

Reiji had been printing names he’d never seen before for about a half hour when he and Takashi finally finished the boy’s school project. A family tree, spanning as far as possible… Kind of a weird assignment in Reiji’s opinion, but whatever. Yoshie’s side of the map was ridiculously full, with aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents covering it… Hell, there were even some great grandparents!

...And it made Reiji’s side of the family tree look non-existent in comparison. All he’d put down there was himself, his mother, and his maternal grandparents. Anything else about his family (if that mess could even be called that) was missing from the tree. That was fine by him, he didn’t need to make Takashi worry about any of that by including it.

“Papa…” Takashi pointed to his side of the tree. “We’re not done! Mama’s side is done, but yours isn’t.”

“Actually, Takashi, it is done.” He pat his head with a sigh. “Papa doesn’t have anyone else he wants to put on there.”

“But Papa has to have a dad too, right?!” Takashi looked at him with a pout. “My teacher’ll be mad if I leave it so empty!”

“Well, your teacher can’t get mad if Papa doesn’t have anymore to add… And if they get mad, they can get mad at me.” Reiji shook his head. “It’s finished, Takashi.”

“No it’s not! You gotta fill it out more! You gotta!” Takashi gripped his father’s arm.

“No.”

“Papa! Please!”

“No.”

“Papa--”

“I said no, Takashi!” Reiji hadn’t meant to snap like that, but it was so late and talking about this was dredging up so many painful memories… He would be sure to apologize later. “Go to bed, I’m not arguing this!”

Takashi stare at his father in shock for a moment, not used to him yelling. Tears began to well in his eyes and he turned around. “F-fine…!”

Reiji reached for his son as he ran off, already regretting the tone he’d used. Dammit, he’d told himself he would never yell at Takashi… But he’d screwed that up pretty easily. What a sorry excuse for a father he was.

He sat there for a few moments, trying to figure out what to do. Would Takashi even want him to tuck him in like usual? Reiji wasn’t so sure… He didn’t want to upset him even more than he already had.

“Papa…” Takashi’s voice, shaky and unsure, hit Reiji’s ears and he turned to look at his son. He was standing there in the doorway, now in his pajamas and gripping his blanket. “Will you tuck me in still?”

“Of course.” He stood up, scooping his son up in his arms and kissing his forehead. “Sorry for yelling at you, Papa shouldn’t have done that.”

Takashi sniffled, wrapping his little arms around his father’s neck. “It’s okay… I was being a bad boy.”

“No you weren’t, Takashi. You were just curious.” Reiji shook his head. It wasn’t like his son knew just what Reiji thought of when he thought of the man his mother had been with.

“...Okay…” Takashi went silent for a moment. “Papa, I love you.”

“I love you too, buddy.”

\--

Reiji had been staring at the family tree for three hours now, Takashi sleeping peacefully in bed. His son had wanted so badly to at least have a name for Reiji’s father (even thinking of him as a father made Reiji’s skin crawl)... He was almost tempted to scrawl the name down, to make him happy and to give Reiji a chance to finally tell Takashi about the grandfather he would never meet. Explain to him why he was a bad man…

But the very thought of writing the name down, linking the bastard to him, made him sick to his stomach. How could he do that when he would never forgive him for all he had done, for the damage he had caused? He just wasn’t sure there was a way he could…

That’s when he remembered there was someone else, someone he  _ had  _ found it in himself to forgive… And he couldn’t exactly add him to the tree without adding that bastard… Maybe that would be enough, though. Enough to make this task for from impossible to just hard.

He just had to will himself to take it a little farther, research one or two more names so Takashi’s family tree would look more complete… He just hoped he wouldn’t regret doing this for his son.

\--

“Papa, Papa!” Reiji startled awake as little hands shook his shoulder. “Papa, there are more names on the family tree now!”

“Are there now…?” Reiji yawned, rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes as he sat up. Had he really passed out right in front of the project? It must’ve taken a lot out of him to write those three names… Well, they were varying degrees of hard, really…

“Yeah!” Takashi pointed. “There’s M… Masato Kandori next to Grandma’s name… Is that the name of your dad?”

“...I guess so.” Reiji pulled his son into his lap. “But you see, Takashi, Papa doesn’t consider him a dad.”

Takashi frowned at his father. “Why not?”

“Takashi, he was a very bad man who hurt Grandma and…” He raised a hand to his forehead, a dull ache coming to the scar. “He even hurt me once.”

Takashi let out a gasp, moving to kiss his father’s forehead, used to the tic whenever it began to cause Reiji issues. “Did he give you that scar, Papa…?”

“He did… He didn’t love or care about Grandma or me…” He grimaced, fighting back nausea as it tried to overcome him. “So he’s not really a dad… All parents love and care about their children, you know? Just having a kid doesn’t make you one.”

“Oh…” Takashi nodded, though Reiji wasn’t sure he quite got it. “...Uh, I’m gonna ask who the others are now, okay Papa?! I don’t want you to be upset.”

“...Okay.” He was probably going to be upset the rest of the day, just from thinking about Masato, but Takashi didn’t need to know that.

“Then… Uh, who is Rin Kandori?” Takashi pointed to the name next to Masato’s. “And why does she have a kid with him too?”

“I dunno much about her, other than the fact she was his wife.” Reiji shook his head. “I didn’t have it in me to look up more about her, sorry, buddy.”

“But… Does that mean Grandma wasn’t his wife?” Takashi tilted his head to the side.

“Nope, never was.” Reiji shook his head. “She was what you’d call his mistress, but, uh… We’ll talk more about that when you’re older.”

“Okay! That’s fine!” Takashi nodded. “Besides, I’m more curious about this guy!” He pointed right at the name ‘Takahisa Kandori’ and smiled. “Cause the Taka in his name is the same as in my name!”

“That’s right… Papa did that on purpose, you know?” Reiji ruffled his hair as he spoke. “For a long time… I hated him. He represented everything that had gone wrong for Grandma… Since his dad had died, at least.”

“Was he a bad guy?”

Reiji breathed out through his nose. “He definitely did bad things, really bad things… And I hated him for a really long time. It wasn’t until you were on the way that I even forgave him.”

“If he did bad things, why did you forgive him?” He tilted his head to the side with a confused frown.

“Because hating him and never forgiving him wasn’t gonna be good for me. I’d just think about it all the time and make myself more upset…And I guess it was him or that bastard who hurt Grandma… It was easier to forgive a man who never hurt her directly.”

Takashi nodded. “...So did you use the same Taka cause you wanted to forgive him?”

“It was one small step on the way to doing that, yeah.” Reiji nodded. One small step towards healing just a little more, one small step towards being able to live a normal and honest life…

“I’m glad, my name is cool!” Takashi giggled. “It’s Papa’s name mixed with, uh… Uncle Takahisa’s name… Should I call him Uncle Takahisa?”

Reiji shrugged. “He’s not around anymore so… I dunno. I guess you can call him that if you want.”

“I’m not sure… It’s kinda weird to call him that…” Takashi hummed. “I gotta think on it! You wanna help me?”

Reiji sighed, shaking his head. “Sorry buddy, but Papa’s tired. I need to sleep more…” This took a lot out of him.

“Ah, okay! I’ll just do it myself!” Takashi smiled at him. “Go nap, Papa! I’ll go play in my room!”

“Thanks, buddy.”


End file.
